This invention relates to fractional distillation processes and the applications of such processes to the production of thermal or mechanical energy from two low level heat sources.
In applicant's previous French patent application No. 80 17676 of Aug. 11, 1980, apparatus are disclosed for delivering heat from two low level heat sources to a higher level, by using a succession of evaporation-mixing operations of highly non-ideal reactive solutions such, for example, as previously prepared water and ammonia. The prior preparation of these solutions required more or less conventional distillation or separation devices and processes.
In another of applicant's French patent applications, No. 81 15263 of Aug. 6, 1981, a process and apparatus are disclosed for storing, in chemical form, mechanical or thermal energy. This method and apparatus also requires the prior preparation of such highly non-ideal reactive solutions and their subsequent remixing when the stored energy is to be recovered. There is no disclosure in this application of any special means for the regeneration of the solutions, the assumption being that conventional processes and devices would be used.